Event

San Francisco Piano Trio

Hop into spring with a program of rare and beautiful chamber music when the Redwood Arts Council presents the San Francisco Piano Trio at 8pm on Saturday April 17. Listen in the superb acoustics of the Occidental Community Church as Axel Strauss, Jean-Michel Fontineau, and Jeffry Sykes combine their talents to pursue their love of the piano trio literature. Together, they are an instructor of piano at Cal State, East Bay and instructors of cello and violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The trio's program includes Gabriel Faure's Piano Trio in D minor, Leon Kirchner's Piano Trio No. 1, and Robert Schumann's Piano Trio No. l in D minor.

Pianist Jeffrey Sykes has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe. The San Francisco Examiner praised his appearance with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players as a "tour-de-force performance (that was) the evening's major delight." Recent activities include a Carnegie Hall recital with flutist Stephanie Jutt under the auspices of the Pro Musicis Foundation and a live broadcast over WGBH, Boston Public Radio. His performances have been frequently broadcast over NPR's Performance Today, and he has a discography including eleven CDs published by various labels. For the past ten years, Dr. Sykes has served as the Music Director of Opera for the Young, a professional opera company that gives more than 200 fully-staged performances a year to schoolchildren throughout the upper Midwest. He works extensively as a vocal coach throughout the United States. Dr. Sykes joined the faculty of California State University, East Bay in the fall of 2008 where he coaches, accompanies, and directs the piano accompanying class.

German violinist Axel Strauss, equally passionate about teaching and performing, joined the SF Conservatory faculty in 2001. He won the Naumburg Violin Award in 1998, and in the seasons since, has performed throughout North America as recitalist and soloist with major orchestras. His concerto appearances have taken him to Germany, Japan, China, and Eastern Europe. Mr. Strauss is frequently invited to music festivals in the States and abroad, including the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, International Music Festival of Saga in Japan, and the Kammermusiktage Mettlach in Germany. Axel Strauss performs on a violin by J. F. Pressenda, Turin 1845, generously loaned to him by the Stradivari Society in Chicago.

Cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau is the Chair of String and Piano Chamber Music at the SF Conservatory of Music. He is a founding member of the Ravel String Quartet, winner of two prizes at the Evian String Quartet Competition, and of the first French Grammy Award "Les Victoires de la Musique Classique". They toured extensively around the world and single-handedly created the first ever string quartet residency program in France. A passionate and devoted teacher, Jean-Michel Fonteneau served on the faculty of the Conservatoire National Suprieur de Musique in Lyon, France, until 1999, when he moved the United States to join the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Mr. Fonteneau's recordings can be found with Musidisc-France and Albany Records.

This concert of piano trio music by Faur, Kirchner and Schumann will lightly welcome in the spring. It takes place in the intimate, acoustical superb Occidental Community Church at Second and Church in Occidental at 8:00 P.M. on April 17. Tickets may be purchased at Handgoods in Occidental and through brownpapertickets.com. Call the Redwood Arts Council (707) 874-1124 for season membership or individual tickets. If available, tickets may be purchased at the concert. Prices are $25.00 for general admission, and $10.00 for full-time students with ID. Members receive $2 discounts. Infants and very young children will not be admitted. For further information, visit redwoodarts.org.

Discussion

Location

Occidental Community Church
3637 Church St.
Occidental, CA 95465
United States